A FORMER company director has been convicted of downloading more than 2,000 indecent images of children.

Stephen Fitz-Avon, of Victoria Road, Wilton, admitted three counts of downloading the pictures onto his computer.

Police searched Fitz-Avon’s house on October 21, 2014, after monitoring his internet usage, including use of a file-sharing website.

Investigations led them to his address, where they found a number of electronic devices, including phones, computers and hard drives, the court heard.

Experts examined the devices for a year, before interviewing Fitz-Avon in October 2015.

He made no comment to police at the time.

The majority of the images were found on an external hard-drive.

They were mostly category C pictures — considered the least serious category of indecent images of children.

But police did recover a CD containing a small number of category A and B images.

Fitz-Avon, 56, has no previous convictions.

He was a director of MSG Computing Ltd between 2000 and 2008, and previously director of MSG Management Ltd and Quaco 24 Ltd.

He was sentenced to a three-year community order with supervision, and a five-year sexual harm prevention order at Salisbury Crown Court on Friday.

The court ordered the destruction of the electronic devices.

The judge, Andrew Barnett, said: “People who make or download these disgusting and disgraceful images exploiting young children must suffer the consequences and people do go to prison.

“Potentially, I could have sent you to prison, but in view of your early plea and lack of previous convictions, I take the view that the better sentence, better for you and better for society generally because you will be kept an eye on for the next three years, is to impose a long community order.”

Judge Barnett said he hoped the sentence would help Fitz-Avon deal with his “perverse interests” and lead a “decent and worthwhile existence in future”.